Saturday, 6 August 2016

[REVIEW] The Maze of Nuromen

The Maze of Nuromen (2013)

by Justin Becker and Michael Thomas

Dreamscape Design

Introductory first-level adventures are a hard genre to work
in, because the fragility of starting characters means every hazardous
encounter may be a character’s last, while a PC death may only be the party’s
first. Perhaps for this reason, most intro adventures tend to follow patterns
which make them very predictable: small humanoid lairs, static ruins with lots
of abandoned storerooms, save-the-village quests. I have seen few attempts to
break with the formulas established in Keep on the Borderlands, In
Search of the Unknown, and The Village of Hommlet. The Maze of Nuromen
happens to be based on the basic concept of In Search of the Unknown (with a
hint of The Tower of Zenopus), the abandoned lair dungeon, which I suppose
is logical considering it is written for BLUEHOLME™, a Holmes D&D clone.

There is a very promising outer charm to this (free) product: cartography,
layout and the presentation of information all have a simple elegance which
make the contents accessible, and the package attractive. Particularly notable
are the wondrous public domain-sourced illustrations by Harry Clarke, whose
decadent art nouveau pictures suggest a strange fairyland atmosphere, and which
were the reason I downloaded and read this adventure.

The Maze of Nuromen

Unfortunately, The Maze of Nuromen does not rise above a competent but average
B1-inspired starter dungeon, and Clarke’s influence is not in particular
evidence. Although the backstory has a high fantasy element that sounds
interesting, what we have in the room descriptions are the same old armouries
with corroded weapons, kitchen with discarded pots and pans, and barrack rooms
with beds and a bunch of skeletonised guys still sitting around a card table (a
low level dungeon encounter if there ever was one) – content which is
elementary, mostly mundane, and lacking in potential for varied interaction.

Of course, Nuromen is presented as a beginner’s adventure, so it should
theoretically be all new and wondrous to new gamers. There are two issues I
would take with this line of reasoning: first, the realities of gaming are,
very few beginners will start with the BLUEHOLME™ rules. Second, there is no
reason why a beginner’s module should not have more of the good stuff – stuff
that is fantastic, strange and unexpected. These elements are few and far
between in this module, and although there are some inventive undead encounters
– like with a phantom of a drunkard, or a nasty surprise packed in an iron
maiden – they scarcely detract from otherwise routine dungeoneering. What if
there was more of the illustrations’ essence in the gameplay? What if those
elementary ideas were twisted around a bit, or used in an extraordinarily
interesting way? What if there was a dynamic element, perhaps related to the
backstory (which is an adventure hook, but not a strong, active part of the
action)?

In summary, my problem with The Maze of Nuromen is not with the
product per se, since it is a functional, playable meat-and-potatoes dungeon
for first level PCs, and even gives off that elusive Holmes atmosphere if this
matters. Rather, it is missing its own voice: it is one Holmes-inspired
low-level dungeon among many, reusing the same ideas in a different combination.
Get this one, get another, or cut up your own copy of B1 and rearrange the
pieces: they will all be very similar. Dare we ask for more? Maybe not. If
there is a lesson here, it is that sometimes that fancy artwork does not
constitute a promise to go in with a certain set of expectations: it is often
just artwork that happens to be very, very good.